Young pupils tuck in to school dinners

More primary pupils are eating school dinners after the government introduced new rules to make meals healthier, a survey shows.

Take-up of school meals across English primary schools now stands at more than 43%, an increase of 2.3% on last year, the study from the School Food Trust and the Local Authority Caterers Association (Laca) says.

But secondary school pupils are continuing to reject school meals, with take-up falling this year.

The last time the numbers of pupils eating school meals increased was in 2004 - the year before TV chef Jamie Oliver began his campaign for improved quality school dinners.

Ministers responded to Oliver's campaign by banning junk food from school canteens and vending machines, and introduced a requirement for school meals to use more fresh ingredients cooked from scratch.

Sandra Russell, Laca's chair, said the results were encouraging, although the decline in secondary school numbers was still a cause for concern.

She said: "We must all continue to work together to address the challenges of encouraging young people to eat more healthily. Part of this process has to be gaining closer working partnerships with headteachers to adopt a whole-school policy."

Prue Leith, chair of the School Food Trust, added: "Teenagers are independent young people, and changing entrenched eating habits does not happen overnight. "They need food education and encouragement from schools to change their eating habits."

The schools secretary, Ed Balls, said primary schools had "turned a corner" but acknowledged that more needed to be done.

"Over 3 million children are eating school dinners, a rise of 50,000 on last year. We've turned a corner in primary schools, and the steep fall last year in secondary schools has been halted.

"But we know there is still a huge job ahead. The School Food Trust is making good progress, and I know it will now redouble its efforts, in particular, ensuring that the 230,000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who need it most, are not missing out on a free healthy meal every school day."

Oliver said he was "massively encouraged" by the increase in school dinners take-up.

"I always said this would take 10 years to really see results, but it looks like the corner has been turned, certainly in primary schools, in just three years and that's a fantastic achievement," he said.